not know Lincoln, but he did greatly admire the president. A few days ago it was suggested to Mr. Dickinson that he might make it possible for the Society to acquire title to the furniture of the room in which Lincoln died. By return mail, under a special delivery stamp, came a letter, with a check, which made the Society the owner of these relics. Thus, slowly, one by one, the treasures of the Gunther collection are being transferred in trust for future generations.

NEW PUBLICATIONS

The Society has in preparation three important publications. The first of these, "The Diary of Orville H. Browning, a New Source for Lincoln's Presidency", is the substance of an address delivered before the Society by Dr. Theodore C. Pease of the University of Illinois. In its published form the address will include numerous extracts from the Diary which Dr. Pease felt constrained for lack of time to omit when he read the paper last March.

A second pamphlet, also an address delivered before the Society, is by Professor Arthur Charles Cole of Ohio State University. It is entitled "Lincoln's House Divided Speech; Did it Refer to the Doctrines of Class Struggle?"

The third publication is a life of Colonel Ephraim P. Ellsworth, by Rev. Charles A. Ingraham of Cambridge, N. Y. A life of Colonel Ellsworth has long been needed, and will be of special interest to Chicagoans, as the original cadets or "zouaves", with which Ellsworth

Rosenthal, James

Stevenson, Dr. Alexander F. Williamson, Miss Margaret M.

NECROLOGY

Rodgers, J. G. Williams, Lawrence

City of Chicago, Dec. 15th, 1837

Dear Father & Mother:

I have had in contemplation year after year to go and see you, but never could bring it round right somehow— finally I got a notion in my head that I must come to this country and I have never as yet seen any cause to regret it. When I came here two years ago last April this was a very new place, with a very few inhabitants, and at this time there is over ten thousand. We have a city charter with all the regulations of the city of New York, and which encloses within the limits of its charter 14 sections of land, 640 acres to the section. This is the best country for a mechanic or a business man that I ever saw, and I have seen many places in different parts of the country, and have never seen any to compare with this. It is the garden of America.

I am located on the north branch of the Chicago River, at the steam mill which I have carried on since I have been in the country. I have found it a first rate business, and have sold all the lumber I have made from fifteen to forty dollars per thousand. There has been so much building going on here that the lumber business has been the best that has been going. I live where I can look to the south on to what is called the grand prairie of Illinois, where you can not see a tree so far as the eye can extend in some directions. The prairies in this country from the month of May until October are covered with roses and flowers of every description, and even the timbered land is full of them, and wherever you go it looks and smells like a garden of the richest kind. Here the farmer has nothing to do but turn over the prairie sod and it is ready for a crop. I know farms here whose owners only got the titles to their lands two years last June, better farms than a man could make in the eastern states in forty. I know also some farmers who have been on their farms from two to three years that are now as independent as princes. I will give you a statement of the prices of the farmer's produce and thus you may judge for your selves. The prices will appear strange to you no doubt, but it is not more strange than true, for I have had in my employ from six to eight men besides my own family ever since I have been here and I have a right to know the prices and have consumed much of the farmers produce:-flour from 8 to 16 dollars

per bbl., corn meal from $1.00 to $1.50 per bushel, oats from .75 to 1.50, potatoes from .50 to 2.00, butter from .31 to .50, cheese from .12 to .25, pork by the butt 30.00, prime and over hogs from 15.00 to 22.00, fresh onions from 1.00 to 1.50, white beans from 2.00 to 3.00 per bushel, and pumpkins 121⁄2 cts. each. Now if a farmer cannot get rich at those prices, who can?

It is the best grazing country in the world. The finest beef is raised here that I ever saw. Every thing grows spontaneously; almost any thing that a person plants or sows with prudent care produces a great crop. You may ask why are those prices so high when so easily raised-which is readily answered. The tide of immigration is so great into this country-canal digging, for there is one a-making from this place to the Illinois River—and railroad making, for there is one making from this place to Galena into the back region of country-all these causes combined create such a consumption of produce that it is impossible to raise a supply, and they have to import from other states, such as Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

I might write over four sheets of paper, and then not half describe this country to you, therefore you must be satisfied if I touch but lightly on different subjects. The growth of this place and country is unparalleled, for when I came here a person could hardly get a place to lay his head; now there is a great many fine buildings as good as the City of New York affords. Last winter there laid up in this harbor 22 vessels, some of them of the first class. Two of them were taken from the British in the last war and lay sunk at the harbour of Erie on Lake Erie, then raised, refitted and put into the merchant service and run from this place to Buffalo.

To give you some idea of the growth of this place three years ago at the sale of canal lots they sold from 40 to 300 dollars, and at a subsequent sale a year ago last June lots similar to the ones described sold from 8 to 21 thousand dollars. Something like that has been the rise of property all over this country, until the last six months it has been going the other way. The reign of terror has been so great in our country it has paralyzed all kinds of business, destroyed all confidence, and almost every business man has been ruined by a blind and foolish administration; but people are getting their eyes

intense brilliancy in the vast black clouds as they came rolling on, added to the interest, but as it closed over us we lost sight of day, and as it was growing late we were in the dark the rest of the way. We reached Michigan City about 8 o'clock, and changing cars we left for Chicago and reached here about 11 o'clock that night.

And now came the most unpleasant part of the journey, and I only detail it to you that you may perhaps learn something which may be of service to you in similar cases. It was very late, and we found the wind from off the lake was blowing bitterly cold, (for I must tell you the depot is built out into the lake, the track being laid for nearly a mile on piles driven into the water) and the waves of the lake were roaring, maddened by the wind, and it was still raining. Added to this the noise and confusion, bustle, hurry, the great crowds of passengers and the few omnibuses. I got into an omnibus which was fast filling up, and gave my check for my trunk to the driver and thus secured a seat, but there were some half dozen more than could be accomodated who crowded into the omnibus and with the rain dripping from them it was an extremely uncomfortable position. But making the best I could of it, I was very impatient to get to a hotel to get warm, as I was chilled through, and wanted to get to bed.

We finally got started, and dropping our passengers at the various hotels we came at last to the hotel which I had selected to stop at. On making inquiry for my baggage I was told that there was no baggage wagon at that time of night to bring it up, and then flashed upon my mind my mistake, and of which you will have to note. I had given him my check as the rest had done, but did not recollect the number of it. If I had made a memorandum of it, I should have avoided all my trouble for if I had recollected the number I could have selected it from the number which the driver had in his possession. The only satisfaction I could get was the promise that I would have it brought to me in the morning, yet I did not see how this was possible, as the driver had a dozen other checks besides mine, the baggage corresponding to which was to be delivered at the various hotels, and how was he to know mine from the rest, and where to bring it. Regretting now too late my error, I concluded as my only hope to wait until morning and then to look after my baggage. So I applied immediately for a room, and was told that they could accomodate no one, that all their rooms and beds were full, and that not even a cot was to spare.

So I was compelled to go to another hotel, which I found to be almost as much crowded, it being impossible to get a bed, and the most that could be done was to furnish us a cot in one of the parlors, which I took, concluding that I could do no better from my own experiences and from seeing others flock in from the other hotels where they had been unsuccessful in getting in, and from the very consoling remark of one of the clerks that there would be a great many who would have to sit up for want of beds that night. I got a cot in one of the parlors where a large piano and four cots and other luggage filled the room, and I passed a miserable night of it, for it was very cold and there was not half enough clothes on the cot. The wind howling most piteously, rattling the windows, slamming the shutters, and with some fears of having some trouble in getting my baggage, I was certainly in no very good humor; as soon as morning came I posted down to the depot to look for my baggage, and after a desperate struggle with the wind, which was now blowing almost a hurricane, I found the depot, and my baggage stowed away with the rest. I then determined to wait until I should see the driver come for it, and then to see that it went to the proper place, but waiting some two hours, and seeing that it was breakfast time, I hurried back to the hotel, got my breakfast and returned as quickly as possible, and found my trunk gone. Exceedingly vexed I hurried back to the hotel at which I first stopped, and where I had ordered my baggage. I found it there all safe after a great deal of trouble, having learned a lesson which I think I shall not soon forget.

It is also an excellent rule to see your baggage as often as possible and to be careful to whom you deliver your check, as many of these pickpockets which always infest such places are on the watch and could very easily get your baggage and you not be able to identify the one to whom you delivered it. My principal fear at Buffalo was that I had given my check to some of those scoundrels, as it was dark and people were hurrying, runners and hack men crying and all the confusion imaginable, and I could never have identified the one to whom I gave my check. The safest way undoubtedly is to take your check and watch your baggage called, and watch every movement of it, see it properly cared for and have it carried with you as much as possible, and insist upon having your baggage before you pay for yours and its carriage and get a card if possible from the driver. But these things are always extremely

inconvenient and some times utterly impracticable, and one must be guided by the circumstances of the case, acting cautiously, prudently and using his best judgment.

Now to return, after finding my baggage safe and obtaining a room, I continued in the house the whole day as the wind was blowing very hard and cold; and wrote a letter home. I went down to the lake shore to look at it when lashed into a perfect fury, the waves rolling very high and two vessels destroyed, one of which capsized, drowning some five persons, the other was dashed to pieces on the breakwater which stands beyond the track of the railroad. Some three or four men were lost in this vessel.

I returned to the hotel in a few minutes as it was too extremely windy to be out, and waiting until morning I called on a great many lawyers, made my business known, and after a good many trials succeeded in obtaining my situation, after getting which I had as much difficulty in obtaining a boarding house, it taking me a whole day to get one. During this time I traversed the city in every direction and found many boarding houses but all full and asking exorbitant prices. We had some sixty boarders at the last house where I stopped and have near twenty where I now am. This excess is not confined to private houses, but all the hotels are continually crowded and to such a degree as I never saw in any other place. Some two weeks ago a grand excursion party from the East were here, among whom were many prominent editors of newspapers, Millard Fillmore, Geo. Bancroft, etc., and on this occasion the steamboats' cabins were used to accommodate the guests. The party, filling some two or three trains of cars, went down to St. Paul, Minnesota, where they spent a few days and returned. This was the celebration of the completion of the railroad to the Mississippi to Rock Island, which will cut off a great deal of the Cincinnati and Louisville and the up-river trade, which will now be brought through this place, which is in direct communication with all the eastern cities.

With Chicago I am very well pleased, and am of the opinion that as a western city it is to take the lead, and be to the west what New York is to the east. It is now barely twenty years old, having a population of seventy thousand, with an increase unparalleled-ten thousand may be safely reckoned upon as being the average of increase every year, and if so, how many years will it take to equal Cincinnati in size, which it will certainly do and as certainly take the lead.

You will recollect that this place is not as old as Madison, and is yet a very young place. The growth of the city has never been equalled, even in San Francisco. Pa passed through here in 1840 and then it was but a village, and if he had bought land here instead of in Madison he would have been worth a half a million as easily as not. I presume greater fortunes have been made here and in less time and with less capital than in any place in the Union. These have been made principally by land speculation, which has been very profitable. For instance I drew up a deed for a piece of property a few weeks ago which in 1848 was purchased for two hundred dollars and now sold without any improvements whatever for twenty thousand dollars—another, a magnificent house which is erected on a lot which four or five years ago was bought for sixteen thousand dollars now brings a yearly rent of fifteen thousand dollars. These are but two of many hundred instances. I have seen lots with the original trees of the forest still upon them which a few years ago could have been bought for less than a hundred dollars, and now for the first time fenced in and worth a fortune.

Most of the lawyers are engaged in these land speculations, and they have all prospered. The firm in whose office I now am, have individually speculated with great success, although they are both yet young men. Cornell is about thirty, and came here poor about ten years ago, and has now a fortune of some twenty thousand dollars, all of which he has made within a few years past by land speculation. Barron has also made considerable, but how much I don't know. We have in our office a middle aged man who was a cabinet maker by trade, who is now worth his fifty thousand dollars and whose business consists in loaning money at 36 and 40 per cent. a month. He frequently makes a hundred dollars a day. But enough of this, for I hear so much of these things that I am at times discouraged and am worked up into a perfect fever when I hear of so much money being made with so little labor by this grand legalized system of gambling, and I do not wish to trouble you any further with these matters.

Now with the wish that you may safely get through this extended epistle and at the same time preserve your patience,

I am affectionately yours,
JAMES MULVEY

MR. OLIVER MULVEY, NEW YORK CITY.